• Sustainability

Sustainability Pledges Take Flight in Airline Sector

• aviation
• biofuels
• carbon footprint
• carbon offsets
• Delta
• jetBlue

Delta Airlines (the world’s largest airline) and jetBlue have recently made big commitments to lower their carbon footprint, with Delta last week pledging to become “carbon neutral,” by 2030 and plan to invest $1 billion in achieving the goal, while JetBlue announced in January that it will be the first U.S. airline to pledge to offset all domestic flights beginning in July and United Airlines had previously committed $40 million to sustainable aviation development. 

Why This Matters:  If governments won’t force emissions to come down through regulation, then the fact that businesses are willing to make these pledges is even more significant.

• Climate Change

New Biotech Companies Aim to Shrink the Carbon Footprint of Cement

• bioengineering
• carbon dioxide
• carbon footprint
• carbon sink
• concrete

Cement accounts for 8% of the annual emissions of carbon dioxide globally and reducing the carbon emissions from the process of making it has been a tough nut to crack, The Wall Street Journal reports. But now climate-conscious entrepreneurs are working to develop three new construction materials that could replace cement (read more about them […]

• Sustainability

Holiday Gift Guide: Give the Gift of Carbon Offsets

• carbon footprint
• carbon offsets
• holidays

This year, that climate guilt in the form of “flight shaming” set in.  Many people started thinking hard about their own carbon footprints after climate activist Greta Thunberg made headlines by sailing to the large UN climate meetings in a solar-powered boat rather than flying to them and by taking trains to events around Europe.  […]

• Forests

One Fall Thing: Enjoying the Colors Without a Car

• carbon footprint
• fall
• leaf-peeping

  According to the American Automobile Association, most people prefer to see the fall colors by taking a road trip by car.  But as Mother Jones points out, there are lots of low-carbon alternatives.  For example, in New York City there are trains to the upstate New York trail that only take an hour and […]

• Sustainability

Which Companies Are Making the Most of Millennials’ Green Spending Habits?

• biking
• carbon footprint
• consumerism
• ecotourism
• energy efficiency
• organic
• renewable power
• ridesharing

This week we have been reporting on the impact millennials are having on environmental issues across society — so, which companies are poised to make the most of these attitudes?  Forbes Magazine took a look at the “winners” and “losers” for millennial purchasers and found that fast casual restaurants are beating out fast food, casual and recyclable fashion companies are doing well because millennials want fewer and more versatile clothes that can go from home to office to gym (and these may be co-located), and companies that sell organic foods and  products that reduce paper and plastic use and gadgets that promote the “sharing economy” and electric efficiency are all on the rise.

• Sustainability

One Credit Thing: A Card With a Carbon Spending Limit

• carbon footprint
• Master Card

A Swedish-based think tank is launching a new credit card in collaboration with the UN Climate Change Secretariat and Mastercard that will give individuals a means to lower their carbon footprint the hard way.  The credit card will cut off your spending — actually disapprove a transaction — because you have reached your carbon limit […]

• Energy

Head of World Bank Steps Down, Goes Green

• carbon footprint
• investment
• Ivanka Trump
• Pepsi
• renewable energy
• world bank

The head of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, is stepping down three years early to join the investment firm Global Infrastructure Partners, which focuses on investing in renewable power generation assets in developing countries, according to the Financial Times.  News of his departure next week caught many in the financial world by surprise, but it also signals the growing importance and profitability of the development of green infrastructure.